House as Metaphor

When one thinks of profound art, horror/comedies from the 1980s aren’t likely to come to mind. The more discerning consumer understands that horror fiction is often more than just vampires, zombies, or serial killers, but even they are libel to wrongly discount certain movies as superficial.

Released in 1986, House tells the story of Roger Cobb, a horror writer and Vietnam vet who moves into his late aunt’s “haunted” house...the same house where his son disappeared several years before, an event that ultimately led to the failing of his marriage.

Cobb plans to write a nonfiction account of his time in Vietnam while in residence, but the peace and solitude he expected are soon shattered by a series of frightening apparitions, chiefly among them a terrifying creature lurking in a guest room closet. These specters are not ghosts in the classical sense; they are fully corporal and very capable of causing bodily harm. One takes the form of Cobb’s estranged wife, Sandy...then turns into a hideous thing. When Cobb shoots it, it reverts to the Sandy presentation, leading Cobb to believe that he has killed the woman he still loved. Later, the thing reverts again to its natural form, and Cobb buries it.

At one point, Cobb ventures into the closet where the demon abodes, and finds himself back in Vietnam, where, during a patrol, he and a comrade called “Big Ben” were ambushed by Viet Cong. Ben was wounded, and begged Cobb to put him out of his misery lest he be captured. Cobb holds a knife to Ben’s throat, but chickens out, which leads to Ben’s capture. As he is dragged into the bush by VC, Ben swears revenge.

That revenge, Cobb learns, sees Ben, as a hulking skeleton, kidnapping Cobb’s son and holding him hostage in the house. Cobb ultimately rescues the boy and battles Ben, emerging victorious. The movie ends with Cobb and his family embracing, suggesting a happy reunion.

House is a fun little horror movie, but it is more than that, even if subconsciously. What we see onscreen is actually happening, but it all serves as a metaphor. The “house” in question is the human psyche, and the monsters Roger Cobb faces down are his own demons. Again, metaphorically.

It is demonstrated throughout the film that Cobb experiences intense guilt over leaving Ben to die. When writing the scene for his book (rendered onscreen in a flashback), Cobb is visibly shaken, almost as if he himself were having an actual flashback. It is not a stretch to say that Cobb suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Ben Big returning from the grave to take Roger’s son (and, indirectly, his wife) serves as nifty symbolism for Cobb’s own Vietnam related guilt and PTSD “taking” his family from him. Perhaps he was difficult to live with. Maybe he screamed at night and suffered episodes. Maybe he even turned to drink or drugs to cope, leading Sandy to take their son and leave.

Depressed over the absence of his family, Cobb begins writing his story and, in doing so, ventures into his “house” and battles his demons. The guilt over what happened to Ben; his rage and hurt at Sandy leaving him (“I hate that bitch. I want to shoot here. I can’t believe she left me. I love her so much”), and his grief over alienating his son (by literally snatching him from the faux Vietnam-in-a-closet... “Daddy’s sorry. You’re safe now. My demons will never get in-between us again).

Roger Cobb does indeed fight monsters in a haunted house. But he also fights demons in his own mind. And in both cases, he triumphs.